# WASD Configuration

# 10.Request Processing Configuration

10.1 Rule Interpretation
10.2 VMS File System Specifications
10.3 Traditional File Specifications (ODS-2)
10.4 Extended File Specifications (ODS-5)
10.4.1 Characters In Request Paths
10.4.2 File Name Ambiguity
10.4.3 Characters In Server-Generated Paths
10.5 Rules
10.5.1 MAP, PASS, FAIL Rules
10.5.2 REDIRECT Rule
10.5.3 USER Rule
10.5.4 EXEC/UXEC and SCRIPT, Script Mapping Rules
10.5.5 SET Rule
10.6 Reverse Mapping
10.7 Mapping Examples
10.8 Virtual Servers
10.9 Conditional Mapping
10.10 Mapping User Directories (tilde character ("~"))
10.10.1 Using The SYSUAF
10.10.2 Without Using The SYSUAF
10.11 Cross Origin Resource Sharing

↩︎ | ↖︎ | ↑︎ | ↘︎ | ↪︎

By default, the logical name WASD_CONFIG_MAP locates a common mapping rule file. Simple editing of the mapping file and reloading into the running server changes the processing rules. The [IncludeFile] is a directive common to all WASD configuration, allowing a separate file to be included as a part of the current configuration (2.1 Include File Directive).

Mapping rules are used for a number of different request processing purposes.

1. To map a request path onto the VMS file system. That is, to map from web-space into file-space.
2. To map from file-space back into web-space. There is often not a one-to-one correspondance between file specifcations and web paths.
3. To process a request path according to specified criteria resulting in an effective path that is different to that supplied with the request.
4. To identify requests requiring script activation and to parse the script from the path portion of that request. The path portion is then independently re-mapped.
5. To conditionally map to different end-results based on one or more criteria of the request or environment.
6. To provide differing virtual sites depending on the actual service accessed by the client.

Mapping is basically for server-internal purposes only. The only time the path information of the request itself is modified is when a script component is removed. At all other times the path information remains unchanged. Path authorization is always applied to the path supplied with the request.

Rules are given a basic consistency check when loaded (i.e. server startup, map reload, etc.) If there is an obvious problem (unknown rule, missing component, etc., path not absolute) a warning message is generated and the rule is not loaded into the database. This will not cause the server startup to fail. These warning messages may be found in the server process log.

Changes to the mapping configuration file can be validated at the command-line before reload or restart. This detects and reports any syntactical and fatal configuration errors but of course cannot check the intent of the rules.

$ HTTPD /DO=MAP=CHECK

A server's currently loaded mapping rules may also be interrogated from the Server Administration menu (see Server Administration of WASD Features and Facilities).

## 10.1 Rule Interpretation

The rules are scanned from first towards last, until a matching final rule is encountered (PASS, EXEC, SCRIPT, FAIL, REDIRECT, UXEC and USER) when the mapping pass concludes. Non-final rules (MAP and SET) perform the appropriate action and continue to the next rule. One, two or more passes through the rules may occur due to implicit processing (if the path contains a script component) or by explicit restart (SET map=restart).

##### String Matching

The basis of path mapping is string pattern matching, comparing the request specified path, and optionally other components of the request when using configuration conditionals (5. Conditional Configuration), to a series of patterns, usually until one of the patterns matches, at which stage some processing is performed. Both wildcard and regular expression based pattern matching is available. All rules have a template (string pattern to match against the path). Some rules have a result (how to restructure the components matching from the template).

- The template may contain one or more asterisk ("*") wildcard symbols, or a regular expression with optional grouping operators. This is pattern matched against the request path (4. String Matching). If neither is present then the path must match the template exactly.
- The result may contain one or more asterisk ("*") substitution symbols. The result wildcards are expanded to replace the matching strings of the respective template wildcards or pattern groups. Specified wildcard substitution is available (4.4 Expression Substitution). Characters represented by wildcards in the template not represented by a corresponding wildcard in the result are ignored. Non-wildcard result characters are directly inserted in reconstructed path. Non-wildcard characters in the template are ignored. If the result contains no wildcards it completely replaces the URL path.

##### Virtual Servers

As described in 2.4 Virtual Services virtual service syntax may be used with mapping rules to selectively apply rules to one specific service. If virtual services are configured rule interpretation sees only rules common to all services and those specific to its own service (host address and port). In all other aspects rule interpretation applies as described above.

##### Processing Overhead

Naturally, each rule that needs to be processed adds a little to consumed CPU, introduces some latency, and ultimately reduces throughput. The test-bench has shown this to be acceptably small compared to the overall costs of responding to a request. Using the ApacheBench tool on a COMPAQ Professional Workstation XP1000 with 2048MB, VMS V8.3, TCP/IP Service 5.7 and WASD v10.1, with a simple access to /wasd_root/exercise/0k.txt showed approximately 744 requests/second throughput using the following mapping file.

pass /wasd_root/exercise/*

After adding various quantities of the same intervening rule

pass /wasd_root/example/* pass /wasd_root/example/* . . . pass /wasd_root/example/* pass /wasd_root/exercise/*
the following results were derived.

##### Mapping Overhead

Rule Count | Requests/S | Throughput
--- | --- | ---
0 | 744 | baseline
100 | 701 | -5.8%
200 | 665 | -10.6%
500 | 571 | -23.3%
1000 | 461 | -38.4%

Although this is a fairly contrived set-up and actual real-world rule-sets are more complex than this, even one hundred rules is a very large set, and it does indicate that for all intents and purposes mapping rules may be used to achieve desired objectives without undue concern about impact on server throughput.

## 10.2 VMS File System Specifications

The VMS file system in mapping rules is always assumed to begin with a device or concealed device logical. Specifying a Master File Directory (MFD) component, the [000000] is completely optional, although always implied. The mapping functions will always insert one if required for correct file system syntax. That is, if the VMS file system mapping of a path results in a file in a top-level directory an MFD is inserted if not explicitly present in the mapping. For example, both of the following paths

/dka100/example.txt /dka100/000000/example.txt
would result in a mapping to
DKA100:[000000]EXAMPLE.TXT
The MFD is completely optional when both specifying paths in mapping rules and when supplying paths in a request. Similarly, when supplying a path that includes directory components, as in
/dka100/dir1/dir2/example.txt /dka100/000000/dir1/dir2/example.txt
both mapping to
DKA100:[DIR1.DIR2]EXAMPLE.TXT

##### LOGICAL NAMES

When using logical names in file system mappings they must be able to be used as concealed devices and cannot be logical equivalents of directory specifications. You must be able to perform a
$ DIRECTORY logical-name:[000000]
to be able to use the specification as a WASD mapping rule.

Concealed device logicals are created using the following syntax:

$ DEFINE LOGICAL_NAME device:[dir1.dir2.] $ DEFINE LOGICAL_NAME /TRANSLATION=CONCEALED physical_device:[dir1.dir2.] $ DEFINE LOGICAL_NAME /TRANSLATION=CONCEALED - physical_device1:,physical_device2: $ DEFINE LOGICAL_NAME /TRANSLATION=CONCEALED - physical_device3:[dir1.dir2.],physical_device4:[dir1.dir3.]

The logical name may be multi-valued and provided the DIRECTORY command can be used successfully with them (as described above) should be amenable to WASD directory listing producing equivalent results.

## 10.3 Traditional File Specifications (ODS-2)

For ODS-2 volumes, when during rule mapping of a path to a VMS file specification an RMS-invalid character (e.g. "+") or syntax (e.g. multiple periods) is encountered a dollar symbol is substituted in an attempt to make it acceptable. This functionality is often useful for document collections imported to the local web originating from, for instance, a Unix site that utilizes non-VMS file system syntax. The default substitution character may be changed on a per-path basis using the SET rule (10.5.5 SET Rule).

## 10.4 Extended File Specifications (ODS-5)

OpenVMS Alpha V7.2 introduced a new on-disk file system structure, ODS-5. This brings to VMS in general, and WASD and other Web servers in particular, a number of issues regarding the handling of characters previously not encountered during (ODS-2) file system activities. ODS-2 and ODS-5 volumes should be automatically distinguished by the server however it is possible to force interpretation using a path mapping rule (10.5.5 SET Rule).

### 10.4.1 Characters In Request Paths

There is a standard for characters used in HTTP requests paths and query strings (URLs). This includes conventions for the handling of reserved characters, for example "?", "+", "&", "=" that have specific meanings in a request, characters that are completely forbidden, for example white-space, control characters (0x00 to 0x1f), and others that have usages by convention, for example the "~", commonly used to indicate a username mapping. The request can otherwise contain these characters provided they are URL-encoded (i.e. a percentage symbol followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the hexadecimal-encoded character value).

There is also an RMS standard for handling characters in extended file specifications, some of which are forbidden in the ODS-2 file naming conventions, and others which have a reserved meaning to either the command-line interpreter (e.g. the space) or the file system structure (e.g. the ":", "[", "]" and "."). Generally the allowed but reserved characters can be used in ODS-5 file names if escaped using the "^" character. For example, the ODS-2 file name "THIS_AND_THAT.TXT" could be named "This^_^&^_That.txt" on an ODS-5 volume. More complex rules control the use of character combinations with significance to RMS, for instance multiple periods. The following file name is allowed on an ODS-5 volume, "A-GNU-zipped-TAR-archive^.tar.gz", where the non-significant period has been escaped making it acceptable to RMS.

Of course characters absolutely forbidden in request paths must still be URL-encoded, the most obvious example is the space. RMS will accept the file name "This^ and^ that.txt" (i.e. containing escaped spaces) but the request path would need to be specified as "This%20and%20that.txt".

Unlike for ODS-2 volumes, ODS-5 volumes do not have "invalid" characters, so no processing is performed to ensure RMS compliance.

### 10.4.2 File Name Ambiguity

ODS-5 allows for some file name ambiguity in web-space.

For example the file name

This^_is^_an^_EXAMPLE^.txt.;1
would be presented to the client as
This is an EXAMPLE.txt
which when provided in a URL as
This%20is%20an%20EXAMPLE.txt
and translated from that URL into the file specification
This^_is^_an^_EXAMPLE.txt;1
of course will not be able to be accessed.

In addition, the two files

This^_is^_an^_EXAMPLE.txt;1 This^_is^_an^_EXAMPLE^.txt.;1
are distinct in the file-system, independently parsed from the directory structure, presented by a web directory listing (and WebDAV resource property list) as consecutive entries having the same name, with only the accessible file name actually available.
This is an EXAMPLE.txt This is an EXAMPLE.txt

To avoid this situation a potentially ambiguous file name containing an escaped period and no type (extension) is ignored by directory listings and WebDAV property lists. When an ambiguous file name is detected it is reported in WATCH reports.

While these sorts of situations are corner-cases it is best to try and avoid interesting file names that can challenge the rather convoluted VMS file-system environment.

### 10.4.3 Characters In Server-Generated Paths

When the server generates a path to be returned to the browser, either in a viewable page such as a directory listing or error message, or as a part of the HTTP transaction such as a redirection, the path will contain the URL-encoded equivalent of the canonical form of an extended file specification escaped character. For example, the file name "This^_and^_that.txt" will be represented by "This%20and%20that.txt".

When presenting a file name in a viewable page the general rule is to also provide this URL-equivalent of the unescaped file name, with a small number of exceptions. The first is a directory listing where VMS format has been requested by including a version component in the request file specification. The second is in similar fashion, but with the tree facility, displaying a directory tree. The third is in the navigation page of the UPDate menu. In all of the instances the canonical form of the extended file specification is presented (although any actual reference to the file is URL-encoded as described above).

## 10.5 Rules

These are the categories of mapping rules.

- Map paths to the file system, and to other paths:
  - MAP
  - PASS
  - FAIL
  - REDIRECT
  - USER
- Provide access to scripting:
  - EXEC
  - SCRIPT
  - UXEC
- Sets characteristics against particular paths:
  - SET

### 10.5.1 MAP, PASS, FAIL Rules

1. map template result

   If the URL path matches the template, substitute the result string for the path and use that for further rule processing. Both template and result paths must be absolute (i.e. begin with "/").

2. pass template
   pass template result
   pass template "200 $command"
   pass template "418"
   pass template "999 message text"

   If the URL path matches the template, substitute the result if present (if not just use the original URL path), processing no further rules.

   The result should be a either a physical VMS file system specification in URL format or an HTTP status-code message (see below). If there is a direct correspondance between the template and result the result may be omitted.

   ##### Note

   The PASS directive is also used to reverse-map VMS file specifications to the URL path format equivalent. See 10.6 Reverse Mapping.

   An HTTP status-code message can be provided as a result. The server then generates a response corresponding to that status code containing the supplied message. Status-code results should be enclosed in one of single or double quotes, or curly braces. See examples. A 3nn status results in a redirection response with the message text comprising the location. Codes 4nn and 5nn result in an error message. Other code ranges (e.g. 0, 1nn, 2nn, etc.) simply cause the connection to be immediately dropped, and can be used for that purpose (i.e. no indication of why!)

   200 — with following $ will cause the DCL script processor to execute the command. The output will be returned to the client.

   418 — will immediately drop the connection. Also see 2.14 Connection Accept and Reject.

3. fail template

   If the URL path matches the template, prohibit access, processing no further rules. The template path must be absolute (i.e. begin with "/").

### 10.5.2 REDIRECT Rule

1. redirect template result

   If the URL path matches the template, substitute the result string for the path. Process no further rules. Redirection rules can provide result URLs in one of a number of formats, each with a slightly different behaviour.

   1. The result can be a full URL ("http://host.domain/path/to/whatever"). This is used to redirect requests to a specific service, usually on a another host. A result may or may not contain a fixed query string ("/path/to/whatever?one=two").
   2. If the scheme (e.g. "http:") is omitted the scheme of the current request is substituted. This allows HTTP requests to be transparently redirected via HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) requests via HTTPS (e.g. "//host.domain/path/to/whatever", note the leading double-slash).
   3. In a similar fashion both the scheme and the host name may be omitted (e.g. "///path/to/whatever", note the leading triple-slash). The server then substitutes the appropriate request scheme and host name before returning the redirection to the client.
   4. If the scheme is provided but no host component the current request's host information is substituted and the redirection made using that (e.g. "https:///secure/path/to/whatever". This effectively allows a request to be redirected from standard to SSL, or from SSL to standard HTTP on the same server.
   5. As a variation on this, if no host but a port number is present, the redirection is to the (presumably) non-standard port on that same host.

      See 10.7 Mapping Examples for examples of each of these.

   6. Alternatively, it may be just a path ("/path/to/whatever", a single leading slash), which will cause the server to internally generate an entire new request structure to process the new path (i.e. request redirection is not returned to the client).

      ##### Note

      Internal redirection (as this is termed) is a fundamental mechanism available with WASD to completely change the request path and/or query string components for the request - transparently to the client. It is essentially a complete rewrite of the request.

   7. Full request URI rewriting (path and any query string) is available using the map=uri path SETing (10.5.5 SET Rule).
   8. Only if the last character in the result is a question mark ("?") will any query string in the original be propagated into the redirection URL (that is the original request "/original/test.txt?plus=query" is mapped using "redirect /original/* /path/to/*?" does the resulting URL become "/path/to/test.txt?plus=query").

### 10.5.3 USER Rule

The USER rule maps a VMS user account default device and directory (i.e. home directory) into a request path. That is, the base location for the request is obtained from the VMS systems SYSUAF file. This is usually invoked by a request path in the form "/~username/", see ‘Mapping User Directories’ in 10.9 Conditional Mapping for more detailed information.

1. user template result

   If the path matches the template then the result is substituted, with the following conditions. At least one wildcard must be present. The first wildcard in the result substitutes the username's home directory into the path (in place of the "~username"). Any subsequent wildcard(s) substitute corresponding part(s) of the original path.

   If the user DANIEL's default device and directory were

   USER$DISK:[DANIEL]
   the following rule
   user /~*/* /*/www/*
   would result in the following path being mapped and used
   /user$disk/daniel/www/

##### Note

Accounts that possess SYSPRV, are CAPTIVE, have been DISUSERED or that have expired passwords will not be mapped. A "directory not found" error report is returned.

### 10.5.4 EXEC/UXEC and SCRIPT, Script Mapping Rules

Also see WASD Scripting Environment for further information.

The EXEC/UXEC and SCRIPT directives have the variants EXEC+/UXEC+ and SCRIPT+. These behave in exactly the same fashion and simply mark the rule as representing a CGIplus script environment.

The EXEC/UXEC rules maps script directories.

The SCRIPT rules maps script file names. It behaves a little differently to the EXEC rule, essentially supplying in a single rule the effect of a MAP then an EXEC rule.

Both rules must have a template and result, and both must end in a wildcard asterisk. The placement of the wildcards and the subsequent functionality is slightly different however. Both template and result paths must be absolute (i.e. begin with "/").

1. exec template result

   The EXEC rule requires the template's asterisk to immediately follow the slash terminating the directory specification containing the scripts. The script name follows immediately as part of the wildcard-matched string. For example:

   exec /htbin/* /wasd_root/script/*

   If the URL path matches the template, the result, including the first slash-terminated part of the wildcard-matched section, becomes the URL format physical VMS file specification the script to be executed. What remains of the original URL path is used to create the path information. Process no further rules.

   Hence, the EXEC rule will match multiple script specifications without further rules, the script name being supplied with the URL path. Hence any script (i.e. procedure, executable) in the specified directory is accessible, a possible security concern if script management is distributed.

2. exec template (run-time-environment)result

   A variation on the "exec" rules allows a Run-Time Environment (RTE) to be mapped. An RTE is a persistant scripting environment not unlike CGIplus. The essential difference is an RTE provides an environment in which a variety of scripts can be run. It is often an interpreter, such as Perl, where the advantages of persistance (reduced response latency and system impact) are available. For more information on RTEs and how they operate see the WASD Scripting Environment document.

   The RTE executable is specified in parentheses prefixed to the mapping result, as show in this example:

   exec /pl-bin/* (cgi-bin:[0000000]perlrte.exe)/wasd_root/src/perl/*
3. script template result

   The SCRIPT rule requires the template's asterisk to immediately follow the unique string identifying the script in the URL path. The wildcard-matched string is the following path, and supplied to the script. For example:

   script /conan* /wasd_root/script/conan*

   If the URL path matches the template, the result becomes the URL format physical VMS file specification for the DCL procedure of the script to be executed (the default file extension of ".COM" is not required). What remains of the original URL path is used to create the path information. Process no further rules.

   ##### Note

   The wildcard asterisk is best located immediately after the unique script identifier. In this way there does not need to be any path supplied with the script. If even a slash follows the script identifier it may be mapped into a file specification that may or may not be meaningful to the script.

   Hence, the SCRIPT rule will match only the script specified in the result, making for finely-granular scripting at the expense of a rule for each script thus specified. It also implies that only the script name need precede any other path information.

   It may be thought of as a more efficient implementation of the equivalent functionlity using two CERN rules, as illustrated in the following example:

   map /conan* /script/conan* exec /cgi-bin/* /cgi-bin/*
4. uxec template result

   The UXEC rule is an analog to the EXEC rule, except it is used to map user scripts. It requires two mapping asterisks, the first for the username, the second for the script name. It must be used in conjunction with a SET script=as=~ rule. For example:

   SET /~*/cgi-bin/* script=as=~ UXEC /~*/cgi-bin/* /*/www/cgi-bin/*

   For further information see ‘User Account Scripting’ in 10.10.1 Using The SYSUAF and the Introduction of WASD Scripting Environment.

##### Script Location

It is conventional to locate script images in WASD_ROOT:[AXP-BIN] or WASD_ROOT:[X86_64-BIN] (depending on the platform), and procedures, etc. in WASD_ROOT:[CGI-BIN]. These multiple directories are accessible via the single search list logical CGI-BIN.

Script files can be located in area completely outside of the WASD_ROOT tree. Two approaches are available.

1. Modify the search list CGI-BIN to include the additional directories. Only should be done with extreme care.
2. Use mapping rules to make the script accessible. This can be done by using the EXEC or SCRIPT rule to specify the directory directly as in these examples
   exec /mycgi-bin/* /site_local_scripts/bin/* script /myscript* /web/myscripts/bin/myscript.exe*
   or by using the MAP rules to make a hierarchy of script locations obvious and accessible, as in this example
   map /cgi-bin/myscripts/* /cgi-bin_myscripts/* exec /cgi-bin_myscripts/* /web/myscripts/bin/*

##### EXEC Directories and EXEC Files

Generally directories are specified as locations for script files. This is the more common application, with the EXEC rules used as in this example

exec /cgi-bin/* /cgi-bin/*

Mapping a file type into an EXEC behaviour is also supported. This allows all files within the specified path and with the matching file suffix (extension) to be activated as scripts. Of course a script runtime must be available for the server to be able activate it. The following example demonstrates mapping all files ending in .CGI in the /web/ tree as executable scripts.

exec /web/*.cgi* /web/*.cgi*

##### WARNING

Remember scripts are executables. Enabling scripting in a general user area allows any user to write and execute any script, by default under the scripting account. Deploy with discretion.

### 10.5.5 SET Rule

The SET rule does not change the mapping of a path, it just sets one or more characteristics against that path that affect the subsequent processing in some way. It is a general purpose rule that conveniently allows the administrator to tell the server to process requests with particular paths in some ad hoc and generally useful fashion. Most SET parameters are single keywords that act as boolean switches on the request, some require parameter strings. Multiple space-separated parameters may be set against against the one path in a single SET statement.

- ACCEPT=LANG=<parameter> – Allows a path to be marked for language-variant document processing.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  ACCEPT=LANG= DEFAULT=<language> | sets the default language
  ACCEPT=LANG= CHAR=<character> | sets the delimiting character
  ACCEPT=LANG= VARIANT=<name>|<type> | allows the alternate file-type variant to be specified
  ACCEPT=LANG= (DEFAULT=<language>, CHAR=<character>) | sets both (etc.)
  NOACCEPT=LANG | disables language variant processing (on a subtree for example)

  For detailed configuration information see 2.9 Language Variants.

- ALERT[=<keyword>] – Marks a path as being of specific interest. When a request containing this path is detected by the server it puts a message into the the server process log and perhaps of greater immediate usefulness the increase in alert hits is detected by HTTPDMON and this (optionally) provides an audible alert. The following is ordered according to how early in processing the alert is signalled.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  ALERT=MAP | generates this alert immediately after path mapping (i.e. before the request actually begins being processed)
  ALERT=AUTH | after authorization (i.e. when any remote username has been resolved)
  ALERT=<integer> | if the response HTTP status matches the specific integer
  ALERT=END | at the conclusion of process (the default)
  NOALERT | cancels alerts on this path (perhaps subpath)

- AUTH=<keyword> – Changes the specified characteristic during subsequent authorization processing.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  [NO]AUTH=ALL | All requests matching this path must have been subject to authorization or fail with a forbidden status. This is a per-path requivalent of implementing the per-server /AUTHORIZE=ALL policy, and is a little "belt and braces" in a certain sense, but does permit a site to further avoid unintended information leakage (in this case through the failure ensure a given path has authorization).
  [NO]AUTH=ONCE | If a request path contains both a script component and a resource component by default the WASD server makes sure both parts are authorized before allowing access. This can be disabled using this path setting. When this is done only the original request path undergoes authorization.
  AUTH=REVALIDATE=<hh:mm:ss> | Authorization is cancelled and the client requested to reenter the username and password if this period expires between authorized requests. Overrides configuration directive [AuthRevalidateUserMinutes].
  AUTH=SYSUAF= PWDEXPURL=<string> | Parallels the [AuthSysUafPwdExpURL] configuration directive, allowing it to be set on a per-path or virtual service basis.

- CACHE=<keyword> – The default is to cache files (when caching is enabled, 9. Cache Configuration).

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  CACHE=NONE | disables caching of files matching this rule
  CACHE=EXPIRES=0 | cancels previous mapped expiry
  CACHE=EXPIRES=DAY | expires on change of day
  CACHE=EXPIRES=HOUR | expires on change of hour
  CACHE=EXPIRES=MINUTE | expires on change of minute
  CACHE=EXPIRES=<period> | sets the expiry period for the entry
  CACHE=GUARD=<period> | sets the guard period (no reload) for the cache entry
  CACHE=MAX=<integer> | cache files up to this many kilobytes (overrides [CacheFileKBytesMax])
  CACHE=[NO]CGI | cache CGI-compliant (script) responses
  CACHE=[NO]FILE | cache files matching this rule (the default)
  CACHE=[NO]NET | cache any network output
  CACHE=[NO]NPH | cache NPH (non-parse-header script) responses
  CACHE=[NO]SCRIPT | cache both CGI and NPH responses
  CACHE=[NO]SSI | cache SSI document responses
  CACHE=[NO]QUERY | cache (script) regardless of containing a query string
  CACHE=[NO]PERM | permanently cache these files

- CGIPLUSIN=<keyword> – Provides control over how CGIplus records on the CGIPLUSIN stream are carriage controlled and how the stream is terminated. A little esoteric certainly; ask Alex Ivanov ;-)

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  CGIPLUSIN=CC=NONE | no carriage control
  CGIPLUSIN=CC=LF | each record has a trailing line feed (0x0a)
  CGIPLUSIN=CC=CR | a trailing carriage return (0x0d)
  CGIPLUSIN=CC=CRLF | a trailing line feed then carriage return (0x0d0a)
  CGIPLUSIN=[NO]EOF | the end of the record stream is indicated using an end-of-file

- CGIPREFIX=<string> – CGI environment variable names are by default prefixed with "WWW_". This may be changed on a per-path basis using this SET rule. To remove the prefix altogether for selected scripts use "CGIprefix=".
- CHARSET=<string> – This setting allows overriding of the server default ([CharsetDefault] configuration parameter) content-type character set (in the response header) for text files (plain and HTML). A string is required as in the following example, "charset=ISO-8859-5".
- CLIENT=<keyword> – Client IP address data is often used during conditional mapping and as represented by CGI variable data in scripts and interpreter environments. This setting allows an up-stream proxy/accelerator to provide the actual client IP address via request header and have that data substitute for the instrinsic IP address of the up-stream proxy. This provides a level of transparency to server processing via such a proxy.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  CLIENT=FORWARDED | Substitute the (first) address from the "Forwarded": request header. Return a 403 status if no "Forwarded:" header present.
  CLIENT=IF=FORWARDED | As above but the absence of a "Forwarded:" request header is not fatal.
  CLIENT=LITERAL=<string> | Substitue the following string. Intended for testing purposes.
  CLIENT=RESET | Reset the substituted client data to the original (up-stream proxy).
  CLIENT=XFORWARDEDFOR | Substitute the (first) address from the "X-Forwarded-For": request header. Return a 403 status if no "X-Forwarded-For:" header present.
  CLIENT=IF=XFORWARDEDFOR | As above but the absence of a "X-Forwarded-For:" request header is not fatal.

- CONTENT=<string> – The content-type of a file is normally determined by the file's type (extension). This setting allows files matching the template to be returned with the specified content-type. The content-type must be specified as a parameter, e.g. "content=application/binary".
- CSS=<URI>|<URL> – Provides a path (URI) or full URL to a stylesheet for a WASD-generated page (e.g. a directory listing). Adds a
  <LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="uri">
  to the page HTML header.
- DICT=<key>=<value> – Set a dictionary entry. See 5.5 Dictionary.
- DIR=<keyword> – Allows directory listing to be controlled on a per path basis. These parallel the coresponding configuration [Dir..] directives.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  DIR=[NO]ACCESS | allows directory listing
  DIR=ACCESS=SELECTIVE | allows directory listing if the directory contain the file .WWW_BROWSABLE
  DIR=DELIMIT=<keyword> | header, footer, both, none
  DIR=[NO]ILINK | icon plain-text link can be disabled
  DIR=[NO]IMPLIEDWILDCARD | add wildcards if not in path
  DIR=SORT=<column> | pre-sort a listing
  DIR=STYLE=<keyword> | set the style of a directory listing "ANCHOR" the v8.2 thru v10.3 WASD style "DEFAULT" the current WASD style (v10.4 and later) "HTDIR" Alex Ivanov's HTdir style "ORIGINAL" WASD traditional style (before v8.2) "SORT" listing sortable on column "TABLE" using HTML table layout (v10.4 and later) "above2" any of the above without horizontal rules
  DIR=TARGET=<string> | open the file in another window "_blank" opens the file in a new window or tab "_self" in the same frame "_parent" in the parent frame "_top" in the full body of the window "framename" in the named frame
  DIR=THESE=<filespec> | restrict listing to specified filename(s)
  DIR=TITLE=<keyword> | format the title of the window (tab) "0" (digit zero) suppress any title "1..99" where 1 is the top-level directory (device), 2 is the second-level directory, 3 … 99 the current directory "DEFAULT" the default for the directory style "OWNER" the VMS account owning the directory "REMOTE" the remote user name (for X509 authentication the certificate common-name) "THIS=<string>" a literal string
  DIR=VERSIONS=<integer> | list the specified maximum number of file versions, or if an asterisk all versions
  DIR=[NO]WILDCARD | allow a directory listing to be "forced" by including wildcards in the path

- [NO]EXPIRED – This setting allows files in the specified paths to be sent pre-expired. The browser should always then reload them whenever accessed.
- HTML=<keyword>=<string> – Allows the <BODY> tag, and header and/or footer characteristics and text to be added to selected server generated pages such as directory listings and error messages.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  HTML=BODYTAG= | specifies the page <BODY> tag characteristics (e.g. html=bodytag="BGCOLOR=#ffffff")
  HTML=HEADER= | the page header text
  HTML=HEADERTAG= | the <TD> tag characteristics of the header table (e.g. html=headertag="BGCOLOR=#cccccc")
  HTML=FOOTER= | the page footer text
  HTML=FOOTERTAG= | the <TD> tag characteristics of the footer table

  The headertag and footertag directives also allow the full table tag to be specified, allowing greater flexibility with these parts of the page (e.g. html=footertag="<TABLE BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=10 CELLSPACING=0><TR><TD BGCOLOR=#cccccc>".

- HTTP=<parameter> – Explicitly sets an aspect of the HTTP request header.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  HTTP=ACCEPT-CHARSET=<string> | the "Accept-Charset:" field
  HTTP=ACCEPT-LANGUAGE=<string> | the "Accept-Language:" field

- HTTP2=<parameter> – Controls an aspect of an HTTP/2 connection, or initiates an action on that connection.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  HTTP2=PROTOCOL=1.1 | send the client an HTTP_1_1_REQUIRED error whcich should cause it to re-request as HTTP/1.1
  HTTP2=SEND=GOAWAY[=<integer>] | send the client a connection GOAWAY frame with optional error number
  HTTP2=SEND=PING | send the client an HTTP/2 ping
  HTTP2=SEND=RESET[=<integer>] | send the client a stream (request) reset (close) with optional error number
  HTTP2=WRITE=LOW|NORMAL|HIGH | this stream (request) will write to the network at the specified priority relative to other data on the connection

- INDEX=<string> – This setting provides the "Index of" (directory listing) format string for directory paths matching the template. It uses the same formatting as can be supplied with a URL and overrides any query string passed via any URL.
- [NO]LOG – When server access logging is enabled the default is to log all requests. The NOLOG setting suppresses logging for requests involving the specified path template.
- MAP=<parameter> – Controls aspects of the mapping processing itself (from that point in the rules onwards of course).

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  [NO]MAP=ELLIPSIS | By default the use of the VMS file specification ellipsis wilcard ("...") is not allowed. This enables this for the path specified. Use with caution.
  [NO]MAP=ONCE | Normally, when a script has been identified during mapping, the resultant path information is also mapped in a second pass. This can be suppressed by SETing the path as MAP=ONCE. The resultant path is then given to the script without further processing.
  MAP=RESTART | Causes an immediate change to the order of rule processing. Instead of the next rule, the first rule in the configuration is processed. This is intended to remove the need for copious repetition in the rule set. A common or set of common processing blocks can be established near the start of the rule set and be given requests from processing points further down in the rules. It is intended to be used only once or perhaps twice and will abort the request if it occurs too often. Can be detected using the restart: conditional (5.3 Conditional Keywords). Use with caution! Injudicious use would make unexpected mappings expected!
  [NO]MAP=ROOT=<string> | Prefixes the results of following rules with the specified path so that they are all subordinate to it. This also populates the DOCUMENT_ROOT CGI variable. See ‘Document Root’ in 2.3 Site Organisation.
  [NO]MAP=SET=IGNORE | All path SETings following an IGNORE are completely ignored (not applied to the mapping or request characteristics) until a subsequent NOINGORE is encountered.
  [NO]MAP=SET=REQUEST | All path SETings following a NOMAP=SET=REQUEST are only applied to the mapping and not to the request's characteristics until a subsequent MAP=SET=REQUEST is encountered. Intended for use during callouts. These can be detected using the callout: conditional (5.3 Conditional Keywords).
  [NO]MAP=URI | Normally mapping is performed on the request path. This SETing replaces the path with the full, raw, request URI (undecoded path plus any query string). This allows subsequent mapping rules to be applied to the full URI and therefore path components to be remapped into query components, and query components into path components (using specified substitution, see 4.4 Expression Substitution).

- NOTEPAD=[+]<string> – The request notepad is a string storage area that can be used to store and retrieve ad hoc information during path mapping and subsequent authorization processing. Multiple notepad=string set against the one request override previous settings unless preceded by a leading plus symbol, when it appends. These contents then can be subsequently detected using the notepad: conditional keyword (5.3.1 Notepad: Keyword) or the obsolescent 'NO' mapping conditional.
- ODS=<keyword> – Directs the server on how to process file names for naming conventions other than ODS-2 (the default). Be sure to add an asterisk at the end of the specific ODS path otherwise only the top-level will set!

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  ODS=2 | is basically redundant, because if a path is not indicated as anything else it is assumed to be ODS-2. This can be used for clarity in the mapping rules if required.
  ODS=5 | is used to indicate that a particular path maps to files on an ODS-5 (EFS) volume and so the names may comply to extended specifications. This changes the way file names are processed, including for example the replacement of invalid RMS characters (see below).
  ODS=ADS | is used to process file names that are encoded using the Advanced Server (PATHWORKS 6) schema.
  ODS=NAME=8BIT|UTF8|DEFAULT | When a file is PUT (created) using WebDAV or upload, for non-7bit ASCII file names use native ODS-5 8bit syntax (default) or UTF-8 encoded character sequences.
  ODS=PWK | is used for processing file names encoded using the PATHWORKS 4/5 schema.
  ODS=SMB | is a synonym for ODS=ADS and makes clear the path is also being served by Samba.
  ODS=SRI | for file names encoded using the SRI schema (used by MultiNet and TCPware NFS, FTP and other utilities).

- QUERY-STRING=<string> – Set the request's query string to that specified in the directive. Overloads any current query string. Specify URL-encoded if the characters require it.
- PROXY=<parameter> – Sets an aspect of proxy request processing.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  PROXY=[NO]AFFINITY | sets client to origin server affinity.
  PROXY=BIND=<ip-address> | makes outgoing proxy requests appear to originate from this IP address. Must be an address that the media can be bound to.
  PROXY=CHAIN=<host:port> | makes outgoing proxy requests chain to this up-stream proxy server.
  PROXY=CHAIN=CRED=<username:password> | provides proxy authentication credentials to an up-stream proxy server.
  PROXY=FORWARDED | controls generatation a proxy "Forwarded:" request field. This optional field contains information on the proxy server and as a further option the client name or IP address. "PROXY=NOFORWARDED" disables "PROXY=FORWARDED[=BY]" contains the by component. "PROXY=FORWARDED=FOR" contains by and the for components (client host name). Also used with WASD_TUNNEL (proxy tunneling). "PROXY=FORWARDED=ADDRESS" contains by and the for components (client host address). Also used with WASD_TUNNEL (proxy tunneling).
  PROXY=HEADER=<name>[=<string>] | removes or sets the value of the specified proxied request header. Examples: "PROXY=HEADER=referer" would remove the "Referer:" header field from the proxied request "PROXY=HEADER=referer=http://whatever/" would set the "Referer:" header field to the specified URL "PROXY=HEADER=user-agent=Nosey 1.0" would set the "User-Agent:" header field to the "Nosey 1.0"
  PROXY=REVERSE=[NO]AUTH | suppresses propogation of any "Authorize" header.
  PROXY=REVERSE=LOCATION=<string> | rewrites the matching "Location:" header field URL of a 302 response from an internal, reverse-proxied server.
  PROXY=REVERSE=[NO]VERIFY | sets a specialized authorization capability. See WASD_ROOT:[SRC.HTTPD]PROXYVERIFY.C for further information.
  PROXY=REWORK=<string> | rework the response (see Rework Proxy Response of WASD Features and Facilities).
  PROXY=TUNNEL=REQUEST=<string> | allows the originating end of a WASD tunnel to specify an HTTP request line or even request header to be provided to the tunnel target end when the connection is established.
  PROXY=UNKNOWN | causes the server to propagate all request field provided by the client to the proxied server (by default WASD only propagates those it recognises).
  PROXY=XFORWARDEDFOR=<keyword> | controls generation of a proxy "X-Forwarded-For:" request field. This optional field (a defacto standard originally from the Squid caching package) contains the name or IP address of the proxied client. "PROXY=NOXFORWARDEDFOR" disables "PROXY=XFORWARDEDFOR[=ENABLED]" enables "PROXY=XFORWARDEDFOR=ADDRESS" field contains client host address "PROXY=XFORWARDEDFOR=UNKNOWN" field contains unknown for the client host name

- PUT=<parameter> – Per-path control over HTTP POST or PUT request body.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  PUT=MAX=<integer> | * | Maximum number of kilobytes allowed for a request body, if "*" then effectively unlimited (per-path equivalent of the global directive [PutMaxKbytes]).
  PUT=RFM=FIX512|STM|STMCR|STMLF|UDF | When a request body is uploaded into the file-system and the content-type is not text this determines the file record format. The precedence for determining the created file record format is [AddType] RFM:, then any per-path PUT=RFM= mapping rule, then [PutBinaryRFM], then the default of UDF.

- [NO]PROFILE – When using the server /PROFILE qualifier allow or disallow the authentication profile when assessing access for a specific path. Must be used in conjunction with an equivalent authorisation rule (WASD_CONFIG_AUTH) flagging the profile use against an equivalent path (see SYSUAF Security Profile of WASD Features and Facilities).
- REGEX=<keyword> – The default regular expression syntax is POSIX EGREP but can be specified on a per-path basis using one of the following keywords; AWK, ED, EGREP, GREP, POSIX_AWK, POSIX_BASIC, POSIX_EGREP, POSIX_EXTENDED, POSIX_MINIMAL_BASIC, POSIX_MINIMAL_EXTENDED, SED. When changed from the default enabled (WASD) case-insensitivity is lost. Reset expression syntax to global default using regex=default. Note that SETing the regular expression syntax in this way adds overhead as each expression then needs to be regex-compiled with each match.
- REPORT=<parameter> – This setting allows error and other server-generated reports for any specified path to changed between detailed and basic (2.11.1 Basic and Detailed).

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  REPORT=BASIC | include less detail in error message
  REPORT=DETAILED | includes more detail
  REPORT=TUNNEL | brief, non-HTML error messages suitable for proxy tunnel
  REPORT=4<nn>=<nnn> | maps one 400 class HTTP status to another (to conceal the true origins of some error messages)

- RMSCHAR=<character> – This setting applies to ODS-2 paths (the default) only. Paths SET as ODS-5 do not have this applied. During rule mapping of a path to a VMS file specification, if an RMS-invalid character (e.g. "+") or syntax (e.g. multiple periods) is encountered a dollar symbol is substituted in an attempt to make it acceptable. This setting provides an alternate substitution character. Any general RMS-valid character may be specified (e.g. alpha-numeric, '$', '-' or '_', although the latter three are probably the only REAL choices). A single character is required as in the following example, "RMSchar=_".
- RESPONSE=<parameter> – Provides control of the response header and/or content.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  RESPONSE=CSP=<parameter> RESPONSE=CSPRO=<parameter> | see 3.10 Content Security Policy (CSP)
  RESPONSE=GZIP=<keyword> | controls generation of GZIPed response bodies (2.5 GZIP Encoding) "ALL" suitable responses "NONE" of the responses "integer" kilobytes, responses known to be this size or greater
  RESPONSE=HEADER=<parameter> | changes the way in which a response header is generated by the server.
  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  RESPONSE=HEADER=BEGIN | suppresses the response header terminating empty line so that the file or other resource can supply additional header fields. It, of course, must supply the header-terminating empty line before beginning to supply the response body.
  RESPONSE=HEADER=FULL | reverts to normal response header generation behaviour.
  RESPONSE=HEADER=NONE | suppresses the normal response header generation. It is considered the file or other resource contains and will supply the full HTTP response (in a non-parse-header script fashion).
  RESPONSE=HEADER=ADD=<string> | appends the specified string to the response header. Of course the string should be a legitimate HTTP response field and value line. This mapping can be used to add a particular response directive to matching requests.
  RESPONSE=VAR=<parameter> | where a response is being provided from a variable-length record file each record should be terminated as follows.
  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  RESPONSE=VAR=ASIS | return records exactly as they are on-disk
  | (i.e. prefixed by the record length word)
  RESPONSE=VAR=CRLF | carriage-return+line-feed (0x0D then 0x0A)
  RESPONSE=VAR=LF | line-feed (0x0A) character (default)
  RESPONSE=VAR=NONE | nothing should be appended to the record

- SCRIPT=<parameter> – Provides controls over various aspects of the scripting environment.

  For scripting detail see the WASD Scripting Environment document.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  SCRIPT=AS=<parameter> | for non-server account scripting this rule allows the user account to be either explicitly specified or substituted through the use of the tilde character "~" or the dollar "$".
  SCRIPT=BIT-BUCKET=<hh:mm:ss> | specifies the period for which a script continues to execute if the client disconnects. Overrides the WASD_CONFIG_GLOBAL [DclBitBucketTimeout] configuration directive.
  [NO]SCRIPT=BODY=DECODE | instructs the server to decode (un-chunk and/or un-GZIP) an encoded request body before transfering it to the script. The script must be aware of this and change its processing accordingly. See 2.5 GZIP Encoding.
  SCRIPT=CONTROL=<string> | Supply the specified string to the CGI processor as if the a script had provided it using a "Script-Control:" response header field.
  SCRIPT=COMMAND=<string> | allows additional parameters and qualifiers to be passed to the script activation command line. First parameter must be an asterisk to use the server resolved script command. If the first parameter is not an asterisk it substitutes for the script activation verb. Subsequent parameters must be as they would be used on the command line. The following setting set /cgi-bin/example* script=command="* /ONE /TWO=THREE FOUR" would result in the hypothetical script being command-line activated $ EXAMPLE /ONE /TWO=THREE FOUR
  SCRIPT=CPU=<hh:mm:ss> | specifies that the server should not allow the script to use more than the specified quantity of CPU time. This is approximate, due to the way the server administers scripting. It can serve to prevent scripts from consuming indefinite quantities of system resources.
  SCRIPT=DEFAULT=<string> | sets the default directory for the script environment (a SET DEFAULT immediately prior to script activation). This can be suppressed (for backward compatibility purposes) using a "#" as the target directory. This string is reflected in CGI variable SCRIPT_DEFAULT so that CGIplus script and RTE engines can be informed of this setting for a particular script's environment. Unix syntax paths may also be specified. If the default begins with a "/" character the SET DEFAULT is not performed but the SCRIPT_DEFAULT variable is set appropriately allowing the equivalent of a chdir() to be performed by the scripting environment.
  [NO]SCRIPT=FIND | by default the server always confirms the existance and accessability of a script file by searching for it before attempting to activate it. If it does not exist it reports an error. It may be possible a Run-Time Environment (RTE) may require to access its own script file via a mechanism available only to itself. The server script search may be disabled by SETing the path as nofind, for example "script=nofind". The script path and filename is directly passed to the RTE for it to process and activate.
  SCRIPT=LIFETIME=<hh:mm:ss> | provides a per-path (and hence per-script) value for a script process zombie (idle scripting process) or idle CGIplus and RTE process lifetime. This per-path SETing overrides the respective [DclZombieLifeTime] and [DclCGIplusLifeTime] global directives.
  SCRIPT=PARAM=<name=value> | allows non-CGI environment variables to be associated with a particular script path. The name component becomes a variable containing the specified value passed to the script. Multiple, comma-separated name=value pairs may be specified. The value may be quoted. The following path setting set /cgi-bin/example* script=params=(first=one,second="Two (and Three)") would result in additional CGI variables available to the script WWW_FIRST == "one" WWW_SECOND == "Two (and Three)" Multiple script=params set against the one request override previous settings unless the parameters are specified with a leading plus symbol, as in set /cgi-bin/example* script=params=+(third=three,fourth="number 4")
  [NO]SCRIPT=PATH=FIND | directs the server to check for and report if the file specified in the path does not exist before activating the script process. Normally this would be left up to the script.
  [NO]SCRIPT=QUERY=NONE | saves a small amount of overhead by suppressing the decomposition of any query string into key or form fields for those environments that do this for themselves.
  [NO]SCRIPT=QUERY=RELAXED | normally when the CGI variables are being prepared for a script and the query string is parsed an error is reported if it uses x-www-form-urlencoded format and the encoding contains an error. However some scripts use non-strict encodings and this rule allows those scripts to receive the query strings without the server complaining first.
  [NO]SCRIPT=SYNTAX=UNIX | provides the SCRIPT_FILENAME and PATH_TRANSLATED CGI variables in Unix file-system syntax rather than VMS file-system syntax (i.e. /DEVICE/dir1/dir2/file.type rather than DEVICE:[DIR1.DIR2]FILE.TYPE).
  [NO]SCRIPT=SYMBOL=TRUNCATE | allows otherwise aborted script processing to continue. Script CGI variables are provided using DCL symbols. With VMS V7.3-2 and later symbol capacity is in excess of 8000 characters. For VMS V7.3-1 and earlier it has a limit of around 1000 characters. If a symbol is too large the server by default aborts the request generating a 500 HTTP status. If the above mapping is made (against the script path) excessive symbol values are truncated and such symbol names placed into a special CGI variable named SERVER_TRUNCATE.

- [NO]SEARCH=NONE – Do not activate the automatic document search script for any query strings associated with this path.
- SERVICE=<string> When mapping is concluded move the request to this virtual service or to the first virtual service matching a wildcarded specification.
- SSI=<parameter> Controls aspects of Server-Side Include engine behaviour.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  [NO]SSI=PRIV | SSI documents cannot contain privileged directives (e.g. <--#exec ... -->) unless owned by SYSTEM ([1,4]) or are in path set as allowing these directives. Use SSI=priv to enable this, NOSSI=priv to disable. Caution: these SSI directives are quite powerful, use great care when allowing any particular document author or authors to use them.
  SSI=EXEC=<string> | where <string> is a comma-separated list of the #dcl parameters permitted for the path allows fine-grained control of what capabilities are enabled. The parameter "#" enables SSI on a per-path basis. ssi=exec=say,show ssi=exec=#

- SSLCGI=<keyword> – Enables and sets the type of CGI variables used to represent a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) CGI variables.

  When enabling these variables it is advised to increase the WASD_CONFIG_GLOBAL [BufferSizeDclCommand] and [BufferSizeCgiPlusIn] directives by approximately 2048.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  NOSSLCGI | disables the facility
  SSLCGI=none | disables the facility
  SSLCGI=Apache_mod_SSL | provides Apache mod_ssl style variables
  SSLCGI=Apache_mod_SSL_extens | provides variables representing X509 V3 extensions from the server certificate
  SSLCGI=Apache_mod_SSL_client | provides variables representing X509 V3 extensions from the client certificate
  SSLCGI=Purveyor | provides Purveyor style variables

- [NO]STMLF – Specify files to be automatically converted to Stream-LF format. The default is to ignore conversion. STMLF allows selected paths to be converted.
- THROTTLE=<parameter> – Controls the concurrent number of scripts being processed on the path.

  See 2.6 Request Throttling.

  Rule |
  --- | ---
  THROTTLE=n[/u][,n,n,n,hh:mm:ss,hh:mm:ss] |
  THROTTLE=FROM=<n> |
  THROTTLE=USER=<u> |
  THROTTLE=TO=<n> |
  THROTTLE=RESUME=<n> |
  THROTTLE=BUSY=<n> |
  THROTTLE=TIMEOUT=QUEUE=<hh:mm:ss> |
  THROTTLE=TIMEOUT=BUSY=<hh:mm:ss> |

- TIMEOUT=<parameter> – Sets the appropriate timeout period on a per-path basis. The string "none" can be used to specify no timeout.

  These parallel the respective configuration timeout periods. See 6.2 Alphabetic Listing.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  TIMEOUT=<hh:mm:ss>, <hh:mm:ss>,<hh:mm:ss> | Keep-alive, then no-progress, then output timeouts.
  TIMEOUT=KEEPALIVE= <hh:mm:ss> | Keep idle network connections alive for this long.
  TIMEOUT=NOPROGRESS= <hh:mm:ss> | Terminate connection when no data is transferred to the client for this period.
  TIMEOUT=OUTPUT= <hh:mm:ss> | Terminate connection after this period when no response data has been sent.
  NOTIMEOUT | No timeouts are applied to the request.

- WEBDAV=<parameter> – Controls aspects of WebDAV processing or behaviour.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  WEBDAV=[NO]ALL | all requests using WebDAV processing (even if not WebDAV request)
  WEBDAV=[NO]AUTH | authorise access using WebDAV rules (even if not WebDAV request)
  WEBDAV=[NO]HIDDEN | list (default) or hide U*x hidden files (i.e. those with names beginning with period)
  WEBDAV=[NO]LOCK | allow/apply WebDAV locking to this path
  WEBDAV=[NO]PROFILE | WebDAV access according to SYSUAF profile
  WEBDAV=[NO]PROP | allow/apply WebDAV 'dead' property(ies) to this path
  WEBDAV=[NO]PUT=LOCK | a resource must be locked before a PUT is allowed
  WEBDAV=[NO]READ | WebDAV methods allowed read this tree
  WEBDAV=[NO]SERVER | WebDAV access as server account (best effort)
  WEBDAV=[NO]WINPROP | when NOWINPROP windows properties are ignored and emulated
  WEBDAV=[NO]WRITE | WebDAV methods allowed write to this path (implied read)
  WEBDAV=LOCK=TIMEOUT=DEFAULT= | hh:mm:ss
  WEBDAV=LOCK=TIMEOUT=MAX= | hh:mm:ss
  WEBDAV=META=DIR= | per-path equivalent of global [WebDAVmetaDir]

- WEBSOCKET=<parameter> – Controls aspects of WebSocket processing or behaviour.

  Rule | Description
  --- | ---
  WEBSOCKET=INPUT=integer | Specifies the size of the WEBSOCKET_INPUT mailbox buffer; in bytes.
  WEBSOCKET=OUTPUT=integer | Specifies the size of the WEBSOCKET_OUTPUT mailbox buffer; in bytes.

Of course, as with all mapping rules, paths containing file types (extensions) may be specified so it is quite easy to apply settings to particular groups of files. Multiple settings may be made against the one path, merely separate set directives from each other with white-space. If a setting string is required to contain white-space enclose the string with single or double quotes, or curly brackets. The following example gives a small selection of potential uses.

# examples of SET rule usage # -------------------------- # disable caching for selected paths set /wasd_root/src/* NOcache set /sys$common/* NOcache # enable stream-LF conversion in selected directory trees set /web/* stmlf set /wasd_root/* stmlf # respond with Cyrillic character set(s) from relevant directories set /*/8859-5/* charset=ISO-8859-5 set /*/koi8-r/* charset=KOI8-R # the Sun Java tutorial when UNZIPped contains underscores for invalid characters set /vms/java/tutorial/* RMSchar=_ # if a request has "/plain-text/" in its path then ALWAYS return as plain-text! set /*/plain-text/* content=text/plain map /*/plain-text/* /*/* # same for "/binary/" set /*/binary/* content=text/plain map /*/binary/* /*/* # indicate extended file specifications on this path set /Documents/* ODS=5 pass /Documents/* /ods5_device/Documents/* # throttle this script's execution, 5 executing, unlimited waiting set /cgi-bin/big_script* throttle=5 # disable server script search for this RTE set /onerte/* script=nofind exec /onerte/* (CGI-BIN:[000000]ONERTE.EXE)/wasd_root/src/one/*

##### Postfix SET Rule

Path SETings may appended to any rule that contains both a template and result. This makes it possible to apply path SETings using matching final rules. For example a matching PASS rule does not require a separate, preceding SET rule containing the same path to also apply required SETings. This is more efficient (requiring less pattern matching) and tends to make the rule set less cluttered.

# examples of postfix SET rule usage # ---------------------------------- # if a request has "/plain-text/" in its path then ALWAYS return as plain-text! map /*/plain-text/* /*/* content=text/plain # same for "/binary/" map /*/binary/* /*/* content=text/plain # indicate extended file specifications on this path pass /Documents/* /ods5_device/Documents/* ODS=5 # throttle this script's execution, 5 executing, unlimited waiting script /big_script* /cgi-bin/big_script* throttle=5

## 10.6 Reverse Mapping

Path mapping is required to get from web-space into file-space, and that mapping is not necessarily one-to-one. That is, /web/doc/ may not be WEB:[DOC] but for example, DKA0:[WEB.DOC] so that mapping would be

pass /web/* /dka0/web/*

Mapping paths in reverse is needed to get something like DKA0:[WEB.DOC]THIS.TXT (that may come from a $SEARCH result) back into the web-space of /web/doc/this.txt. So WASD needs paths that may be mapped using the result back to the template. In simple mappings the one rule can serve both purposes. In some situations explicit, extra rules are needed.

The above example is trivial, and if WASD needs to turn something like DKA0:[DOC]THIS.TXT into a web-space representation (URI) it makes the file-space specification into URI syntax (i.e. /dka0/web/doc/this.txt) and then scans the rules comparing that to result strings in the MAP rules. When one matches, the template component is used to generate a web-space representation - the reverse of what was done when the request was initially being processed.

The non-trivial example is often associated with concealed, search-list devices. For example, the somewhat contrived

$ DEFINE /SYSTEM /TRANSLATION=CONCEALED WEB DKA100:[WEB1.],DKA200:[WEB2.]
with which the mapping from web- to file-space can be
pass /web/* /web/*
using the logical device, and quite naturally maps into file-space. WASD's file-system actions are complex and low-level, often needing to access to the underlying device (and so tend to $PARSE NOCONCEAL). Results from the above mapping can come back DKA100:[WEB1]THIS.TXT and DKA200:[WEB2]THAT.TXT and so the above mapping can't be used to get back into web-space because there is no template with a matchable rule.

In such a case there is a need to add explicit reverse-mapping rules (often immediately following the forward mapping rule for convenience of grouping, but rules are also a little position sensitive so some skill is required) for the purpose of getting the underlying file specifications into a form for web consumption. In the above scenario an example would be

pass /web/* /web/* pass /web/* /dka100/web1/* pass /web/* /dka200/web2/*
where the latter two are never hit during forward mapping (because the first rule will always map a request URI beginning /web/...) but will be hit during reverse-mapping. If a reverse mapping exhausts the rules before finding a match the NO:[REVERSE.MAPPING.FOR.THIS]FILE.PATH! mapping is explicitly generated.

It is not always straight-forward and sometimes a decision is necessary about how the web-space is to be presented to the clients. For instance, while you easily can have multiple web-space views of the one file-space area, it is less straight-forward to have multiple web-space reverse mappings of the one file-space (as normally only the first matching rule will ever be reverse-mapped).

## 10.7 Mapping Examples

The example mapping rule file for the WASD HTTP server can be viewed.

##### Example of Map Rule

The result string of these rules may or may not correspond to to a VMS physical file system path. Either way the resulting rule is further processed before passing or failing.

1. The following example shows a path "/web/unix/shells/c" being mapped to "/web/software/unix/scripts/c", with this being used to process further rules.
   map /web/unix/* /web/software/unix/*

##### Examples of Pass Rule

1. This example shows a path "/web/rts/home.html" being mapped to "/user$rts/web/home.html", and this returned as the mapped path.
   pass /web/rts/* /user$rts/web/*
2. This maps a path "/icon/bhts/dir.gif" to "/web/icon/bhts/dir.gif", and this returned as the mapped path.
   pass /icon/bhts/* /web/icon/bhts/*
3. This example illustrates HTTP status code mapping. Each of these does basically the same thing, just using one of the three possible delimiters according to the characters required in the message. The server generates a 403 response with has as its text the following message. (Also see the conditional mapping examples.)
   pass /private/* "403 Can't go in there!" pass /private/* '403 "/private/" is off-limits!' pass /private/* {403 Can't go into "/private/"}

##### Examples of Fail Rule

1. If a URL path "/web/private/home.html" is being mapped the path would immediately be failed.
   fail /web/private/*
2. To ensure all access fails, other than that explicitly passed, this entry should be included the the rules.
   fail /*

##### Examples of Exec and Script Rules

1. If a URL path "/htbin/ismap/web/example.conf" is being mapped the "/wasd_root/script/" must be the URL format equivalent of the physical VMS specification for the directory locating the script DCL procedure. The "/web/example.conf" that followed the "/htbin/ismap" in the original URL becomes the translated path for the script.
   exec /cgi-bin/* /cgi-bin/*
2. If a URL path "/pl-bin/example/this/directory/and-file.txt" is being mapped the script name and filename become "/pl-bin/example" and "WASD_ROOT:[SRC.PERL]EXAMPLE.PL" respectively, the path information and translated become "/this/directory/and-file.txt" and "THIS:[DIRECTORY]AND-FILE.TXT", and the interpreter (run-time environment) activated to interpret the script is CGI-BIN:[000000]PERLRTE.EXE.
   exec /pl-bin/* (cgi-bin:[000000]perlrte.exe)/wasd_root/src/perl/*
3. If a URL path "/conan/web/example.hlb" is being mapped the "/wasd_root/script/conan" must be the URL format equivalent of the physical VMS specification for the DCL procedure. The "/web/example.hlb" that followed the "/conan/" in the original URL becomes the translated path for the script.
   script /conan* /wasd_root/script/conan*

##### Examples of Redirect Rule

1. If a URL path "/AnotherGroup/this/that/other.html" is being mapped the URL would be redirected to "http://host/this/that/other.html"
   redirect /AnotherGroup/* http://host/group/*
2. If a cleartext service (http://) is deprecated and all requests to it should instead be redirected to a secure service (https://)
   [[the.host.name:80]] redirect /* https:///*?

   And to a non-standard port number

   [[the.host.name:80]] redirect /* https://:4443/*?

## 10.8 Virtual Servers

As described in 2.4 Virtual Services, virtual service syntax may be used with mapping rules to selectively apply rules to one specific service. This example provides the essentials of using this syntax. Note that service-specific and service-common rules may be mixed in any order allowing common mappings (e.g. for scripting) to be shared.

# a mapping rule example of virtual servers [[alpha.domain.name:80]] # ALPHA is the only service allowing access to VMS help directory pass /sys$common/syshlp/* [[beta.domain.name:80]] # good stuff is only available from BETA pass /good-stuff/* # BETA has its own error report format, the others share one pass /errorreport /httpd/-/errorreportalpha.shtml [[gamma.domain.name:80]] # gamma responds with documents using the Cyrillic character set set /* charset=ISO-8859-5 [[*]] # common file and script mappings exec /cgi-bin/* /cgi-bin/* exec+ /cgiplus-bin/* /cgi-bin/* script+ /help/* /cgiplus-bin/conan/* pass /errorreport /httpd/-/errorreport.shtml # now the base directories for all documents [[alpha.domain.name:80]] /* /web/alpha/* [[beta.domain.name:80]] /* /web/beta/* [[gamma.domain.name:80]] /* /web/gamma/* [[*]] # catch-all rule (just in case :-) pass /* /web/*

The Server Administration page WATCH report provides the capability to view the rule databse as well as rule mapping during actual request processing, using the WATCH facility.

## 10.9 Conditional Mapping

##### Deprecated and Discouraged

See 5. Conditional Configuration for current funtionality.

As this has been deprecated for some years now the documentation for this functionality has been removed.

For backward-reference see the "WASD Hypertext Services - Technical Overview" document for release v9.3 or earlier.

###### Mapping User Directories

## 10.10 Mapping User Directories (tilde character ("~"))

The convention for specifying user web areas is "/~username/". The basic idea is that the user's web-available file-space is mapped into the request in place of the tilde and username.

### 10.10.1 Using The SYSUAF

The USER rule maps a VMS user account default device and directory (i.e. home directory) into a request path (10.5.3 USER Rule). That is, the base location for the request is obtained from the VMS systems SYSUAF file. A user's home directory information is cached, to reduce load on the authorization databases. As this information is usually quite static there is no timeout period on such information (although it may be flushed to make room for other user's). Cache contents is include in the Mapping Rules Report and is implicitly flushed when the server's rules are reloaded.

The following is a typical usage of the rule.

USER /~*/* /*/www/*

Note the "/www" subdirectory component. It is stongly recommended that users never be mapped into their top-level, but into a web-specific subdirectory. This effectively "sandboxes" Web access to that subdirectory hierarchy, allowing the user privacy elsewhere in the home area.

To accomodate request user paths that do not incorporate a trailing delimiter after the username the following redirect may be used to cause the browser to re-request with a more appropriate path (make sure it follows the USER rule).

REDIRECT /~* ///~*/

WASD also "reverse maps" VMS specifications into paths and so requires additional rules to provide these mappings. (Reverse mapping is required during directory listings and error reporting.) For the continuing example the following rules would be required (and in the stated order).

USER /~*/* /*/www/* REDIRECT /~* ///~*/ PASS /~*/* /user$disk/*/www/*

Where user home directories are spread over multiple devices (physical or concealed logical) a reverse-mapping rule would be required for each. Consider the following situation, where user directories are distributed across these devices (concealed logicals)

USER$GROUP1: USER$GROUP2: USER$GROUP2: USER$OTHER:

This would require the following mapping rules (in the stated order).

USER /~*/* /*/www/ PASS /~*/* /user$group1/*/www/* PASS /~*/* /user$group2/*/www/* PASS /~*/* /user$group3/*/www/* PASS /~*/* /user$other/*/www/*

Accounts with a search list as a default device (e.g. SYS$SYSROOT) present particular complications in this schema and should be avoided.

##### Note

Accounts that possess SYSPRV, are CAPTIVE, have been DISUSERED or that have expired passwords will not be mapped. A "directory not found" error report is returned. This error was chosen to make it to make more difficult to probe the authorization environment, determining whether accounts exist or not.

Of course vanilla mapping rules may be used to provide for special cases. For instance, if there is requirement for a particular, privileged account to have a user mapping that could be provided as in the following (rather exagerated) example.

PASS /~system/* /sys$common/sysmgr/www/* USER /~*/* /*/www/ PASS /~*/* /user$disk/*/www/*

##### User Account Scripting

In some situations it may be desirable to allow the average Web user to experiment with or implement scripts. With WASD 7.1 and later, and VMS V6.2 and later, this is possible. Detached scripting must be enabled, the /PERSONA startup qualifier used, and appropriate mapping rules in place. If the SET "script=as=" mapping rule specifies a tilde character then for a user request the mapped SYSUAF username is substituted.

The following example shows the essentials of setting up a user environment where access to a subdirectory in the user's home directory, [.WWW] with script's located in a subdirectory of that, [.WWW.CGI-BIN].

UXEC /~*/cgi-bin/* /*/www/cgi-bin/* script=as=~ USER /~*/* /*/www/* REDIRECT /~* /~*/ PASS /~*/* /dka0/users/*/*

For more detailed information see the "Scripting Overview, Introduction".

### 10.10.2 Without Using The SYSUAF

##### Note

See ‘Mapping User Directories’ in 10.9 Conditional Mapping for current funtionality.

As this has been deprecated for some years now the documentation for this functionality has been removed.

For backward-reference see the "WASD Hypertext Services - Technical Overview" document for release v9.3 or earlier.

## 10.11 Cross Origin Resource Sharing

Cross-site HTTP requests are HTTP requests for resources from a domain different to the domain of the resource making the request. For instance, a resource loaded from domain one (http://domain.example) such as an HTML web page, makes a request for a resource on domain two (http://domain.foo), such as an image, using the img element (http://domain.foo/image.jpg). This occurs very commonly on the web today. Pages load a number of resources in a cross-site manner, including CSS stylesheets, images and scripts, and other resources.

Cross-site HTTP requests initiated from within browser-based applications have been subject to well-known restrictions, for well-understood security reasons. In particular, this meant that an actively processing web application could only make HTTP requests to the domain it was loaded from, and not to other domains. Developers expressed the desire to safely evolve capabilities to make cross-site requests, for better, safer web applications. The Web Applications Working Group within the W3C has recommended the new Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) mechanism, which provides a way for web servers to support cross-site access controls, which enable secure cross-site data transfers.

##### Basic References

This section is not a CORS reference, just the WASD implementation. Readers are referred to more authoritative CORS resources.

- http://www.w3.org/TR/cors/
- http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/cors/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-origin_resource_sharing
- http://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/HTTP/Access_control_CORS

##### WASD CORS

WASD supports CORS using mapping rules. This means cross-origin requests are evaluated prior to accessing any resources or activating any scripts, etc. If the request has an "Origin: .." header and the path has been set cors=origin=.. the server performs preflighted and request checks. If CORS authorised adds CORS response headers. If not CORS authorised adds nothing. Some significant understanding of the purpose and operation of CORS is required to tailor the provision of the required response headers.

Rule | Description
--- | ---
CORS=AGE=integer seconds | Access-Control-Max-Age: response header
CORS=CRED=true|false | Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: response header
CORS=EXPOSE=header[,header2,header3] | Access-Control-Expose-Headers: response header
CORS=HEADERS= | Access-Control-Allow-Headers: response header
CORS=METHODS=method[,method2,method3] | Access-Control-Allow-Methods: response header
CORS=ORIGIN=URL | Access-Control-Allow-Origin: response header

##### WASD CORS Examples

1. For a request containing

   OPTIONS /resources/post-here/ HTTP/1.1 Host: bar.other … Origin: http://foo.example Access-Control-Request-Method: POST Access-Control-Request-Headers: X-PINGOTHER
   with the mapping rules
   SET /resources/post-here/* CORS=origin=* CORS=methods=POST,GET,OPTIONS CORS=headers=X-PINGOTHER CORS=age=3600
   would produce a response
   HTTP/1.1 200 OK … Content-Length: 0 Connection: Keep-Alive Content-Type: text/plain Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://foo.example Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, OPTIONS Access-Control-Allow-Headers: X-PINGOTHER Access-Control-Max-Age: 3600

2. For a request containing

   GET /resources/credentials/ HTTP/1.1 Host: bar.other … Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://foo.example/examples/credential.html Origin: http://foo.example
   with the mapping rules
   SET /resources/credentials/* CORS=origin=http://foo.example CORS=credEntials=true
   would produce a response
   HTTP/1.1 200 OK … Content-Length: 106 Connection: Keep-Alive Content-Type: text/plain Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://foo.example Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true …

↩︎ | ↖︎ | ↑︎ | ↘︎ | ↪︎